In this day and age, many people utilize toilets when eliminating bodily waste. During the proper use of the toilet, users may manipulate the toilet seat and/or lid depending on which type of waste they are eliminating, which gender they are, and whether a lid is present. In many cases, the user encounters a lid covering a seat, and the seat forming a ring around the toilet bowl. When necessary, for men and women in the case of bowel movements, and normally women only when solely urinating, a user generally sits on the toilet seat evacuating waste into the toilet bowl. Normally when men urinate, they do so standing up, directly into the bowl with the seat lifted to expose the entire bowl. If a lid is encountered, it must be lifted before the toilet can be used.
If the user is male and intends to urinate, if he encounters a toilet with both the lid and seat in the downward position, both components must be lifted. If the male user intends to use the toilet for a bowel movement, only the lid would require lifting to the upright position to expose the seat. If the lid and seat were both upright, when a male user approaches the toilet, he would only take action to lower the seat if he needs to eliminate bowel waste.
In the female scenario, since both uses of the toilet require sitting, if the user encountered the lid and seat in the downward position, she would need to lift only the lid to access the seat for sitting. If she encountered the seat and lid in the upward position, she would need to lower the seat prior to use.
Typically, toilet lids and seats are attached with hinges to the bowl at the back and pivot around these hinges to allow for moving of the lid and/or seat as needed in the scenarios described above. In most designs, when in the upright position away from the toilet bowl, the lid and/or the seat stays in this position, as it rests on the toilet tank.
Restrooms in general, and toilet seats in particular, are often unsanitary. This is so often the case that in many locations liners are supplied to eliminate direct contact between the body of the user and the seat. Many reasons exist to cause a very unsanitary seat, such as dirty water splashing on the seat during the toilet flush, prior users of a toilet having germs on their posterior, or even worse someone urinating on the seat by not bothering to lift it. As a matter of fact, the environment around a toilet seat can be so germ infested that the use of the lid is primarily recommended not for aesthetics but to minimize the spread of germs that might get airborne.
Although never touching anything in the restroom or on the toilet would be the best scenario, unfortunately the complex automation of mechanical devices that would be needed may be cost prohibitive to most people.